8/26/08

For those of you that watch football you know that one saying the announcer says before Monday Night Football. The one where he says "Are you ready for some foooooootbaaaalll!"
I love that part. And then I can change the channel.
Maybe if I understood the game of football I might appreciate it. It just seems all the football players do is get in a nice straight line, shout something out, then all run into a pile.
When I bite into one of these caramel coconut goodies all I can hear is: "are you ready for some shhhhhhortbreaddddd!"
These bars were amazing. They remind me of a samoa cookie in bar form with extra shortbread; if a samoa cookie were to mix with a twix bar. Yes, that's it!
The caramel and coconut melded so nicely together on top of the slightly salty shortbread.
caramel-coconut pecan shortbread barsprint recipe

Preheat the oven to 350°. Using a mixer, beat the butter and sugar on high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt, then add to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed just until the dough comes together.
Press evenly into a 8 x 8 non-stick baking dish.
Then sprinkle the chopped pecans over the dough (do not press into dough).
Bake until lightly golden, 30 – 40 minutes, depending on oven (mine took 35). The shortbread might be a still a little soft, that’s ok. Recipe by Dawn Finicane of vanillakitchen.blogspot.com It hardens when it cools down.
You are looking for a very light golden brown. (this is not a cookie so you don’t want brown edges).
In a medium saucepan, melt the caramels with the cream and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt over medium heat.
Stir in the coconut, then spread over the shortbread. Let this cool before adding the chocolate. (I put it in the fridge to cool).
I put the melted chocolate into a plastic bag, closed it up then snipped off a small tip at corner and drizzled the chocolate on that way.
Let cool completely before slicing.
This is really hard to slice when cooled, so use a sharp knife that is warmed up before slicing (run under hot water).cook notes: If you don’t have a non-stick pan, then line your pan with foil (plus the edges) as you will need help removing this from the pan; caramel makes it stick. I found that removing this from the pan then slicing it on a cutting board was much easier than cutting it in the pan.
The next time I make this I might want to incorporate a layer of chunky peanut butter somewhere.
You can also make your own caramel sauce for these, I just didn't have time to.

35 comments:

I'm soooooooo ready for some shortbreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead! I also don't like football, I don't get it! I'm a soccer girl! Not a soccer mom, just a soccer girl! These bars look amazing, I love love love all the flavours!

I try not to comment on blogs and just say YUM, because I get tired of reading it, but my goodness these look sooooo good!! I might make these for the next retreat I go on so other people can eat them, and I'll enjoy their oohs and ahhhs!

These look like they came out of a professional bakery, Dawn. Can you send some to me? I do the same thing: I just send all the fattening stuff away so I don't indulge. These are on the atkins diet, right? ha ha.

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Unique eats, creative recipes, as simple as possible.What drives me to create? Seeing dishes in restaurants, meals created on TV, recipes in cookbooks/online, and I always think to myself why didn’t they add this or why did they leave out that? Love to question, love to research, and love to learn about combining different flavors and textures in recipes.Recipe creations please email: vanillasugarblog@aol.com